May 9, 1981: “I feel no shame in considering the current futurist and gay-orientated releases a lot more exciting as disco records than much of the UK jazz-funk product.”

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

BENNY GOLSON ‘New Killer Joe’ / ‘Rap’ will be on 12in soon and The Quick ‘Zulu’ is finally due commercially next week . . . ‘Ain’t No Stopping – Disco Mix 1981’ has been picked up by Creole, with anonymous artistes renamed Enigma . . . Whispers ‘I Can Make It Better’ is now on US 12in (US Solar YD-12233) . . . Unlimited Touch’s whole LP let alone the ‘Searching’ 12in has surfaced in a few shops completely remixed . . . Webster Lewis ‘Let Me Be The One’ and Isley Brothers ‘Hurry Up And Wait’ are about on promo US 12in . . . Rick James’s LP is out here next week . . . Pete Haigh & Frenchie’s recent live promotion of Spiral Axis at Blackpool JR’s went so well that they’re after other North Western jazz-funk bands to appear there on Tuesdays – contact Pete (Cleveleys 824156) or Frenchie (Blackpool 694871) for bookings . . . Al Taylor at 26 Terence Avenue, Rhyl, Clwyd, has about 500 12in singles to sell, all at under £1.50, send an SAE for lists . . . Chris Jones at 167 Cathays Terrace, Cardiff, CF2 4HW, has compiled a guide for DJs to ballroom dancing gigs – a copy could be yours for a small donation . . . Rob Harknett (Harlow) reports that Czech jocks have to take exams before they can charge a (standard) fee – thus obviating the ‘cowboy’ problem – with passes necessary in a written paper, half hour radio and half hour disco programme, and (gulp!) a 20 minute talk on politics . . . Theo Loyla’s punters of a jazz-funk persuasion at his regular Bridge Country Club gig near Canterbury (he’s there this Saturday) have formed a tribe called the Canterbury Soul Saints, and were at Caister amongst other events – so that’s why ‘Dominoes’ is number 3 for Theo! . . . Tony Jenkins really has found a deluxe venue for Monday nights at Harrow Weald’s superb Middlexsex & Herts Country Club, which’ll be a must when the weather warms up so I hope the crowds keep coming . . . Staines Fusion Few were there on Tony’s opening night, handing out a sexist leaflet captioned “Here to shake ass”! . . . Robbie Vincent and Jeff Young’s sponsored all-night Easter dance marathon at Dartford Flicks raised around £1,200 for charity . . . Mick Davidson nowadays does Liverpool’s Maxwells Wine Bar/Pub on Fri/Saturday lunchtimes and Tues/Sunday evenings as well as his famous Hollywood residency on Thurs/Fri/Saturday nights . . . Jimmie Bell, whose odd Scottish chart you may remember, now partners Brian Young in the Nouveau Romantiques mobile based in Alloa, and while not costing anything like as much, they like me feature all types of music from the ’20s right up to date – which is the way to do it! . . . I feel no shame in considering the current futurist and gay-orientated releases a lot more exciting as disco records than much of the UK jazz-funk product (that word used deliberately), but I was in fact very disappointed by Landscape’s album (which doesn’t claim to be disco of course) . . . Gareth at Groove’s hot tip this week (which like last week’s they’ll be stocking soon) is the exciting disjointedly jazzy Companion ‘Living Up To Love‘ on a French Barclay LP produced by Boris Midney in brilliantly separated stereo (Futurists check the ‘This Is A Test‘ track too). While also dynamite to judge from a tape will be the Was (Not Was) album . . . David Hudson’s old ‘To You Honey With Love‘ LP (US Alston), initially somewhat ignored except by a few of us, has suddenly taken off like a rocket at Groove following general night-time play on Capital Radio . . . Chris Palmer has yet another new Mercedes, this one huge! . . . Sugar Minott’s surname, to answer queries, is pronounced Mynot . . . Mark Summers, mobile from Romford on 01-590 1825, synchs Strikers ‘Body Music’ over Whispers ‘Imagination’ break starting precisely over the last word in “on top of the world”, while Keith Barker-Main (Earls Court Graffiti) mixes from Carol Jiani’s second instrumental section into Nightlife Unlimited ‘Love Is In You (No.2)’ to the break, which overlaps into Frankie Valli ‘Soul’ from the start . . . Norman Scott (Soho Bang) sends a post card to say he’s been catching Diana Ross in Las Vegas and Cliff Richard in LA . . . I’m extremely grateful to all who contribute charts, so please note I’m not knocking Rush Release’s mailing list jocks for finding the material they service eminently usable, it’s just that it would be nice to hear from DJs who actually buy records too! . . . “It’s got to be about the vinyl” . . . HI DE HI!

UK NEWIES

EVASIONS: ‘Wikka Rap’ (Groove Production GP107).
A fantastically good idea – cicadas and jet plane effects lead into an impersonation of Alan Whicker (who’s given permission) doing a typically phrased commentary about the “lingua franca of the funk business”, reeling off all the cliched disco lyric lines in his – I nearly said inimitable! – manner to a heavily thudding 121bpm 12in ‘Thighs High’ groove, with party chanting and spurts of “good times” vocal carrying on for a basically smacking instrumental continuation . . . However keep right on till the end as ”Alan” returns with the best line of all, “the Southern Freeez, is not a cold day in Bournemouth”! What a crossover monster this will be!

KID CREOLE & THE COCONUTS PRESENT COATI MUNDI: ‘Que Pasa/Me No Pop I’ (Ze 12WIP 6711).
Radio jocks love it as do all the disco DJs who have heard it in use, but this sensationally happy 110bpm 12in Latin conga kicker-cum-rapper from the fashionable Dr Buzzard spin-off has taken ages to finally break into the chart – and that seemingly due to charts from jocks who first heard it at Gullivers! Believe me, this incredibly infectious romp is smash-bound dynamite, so don’t be a slouch about it now it’s out here!

PAULETTE MILLER: ‘You Really Got A Hold On Me’ (Black Jack BJD45 010).
Gorgeous beautifully sung delicate spacious 76/38bpm 12in reggae smoocher with lovely little fills from brass or syndrum every now and then in between the beats. Do try and find it.

PASSAGE: ‘Power’ (LP ‘Passage’ A&M AMLH 64851).
Brother Louis Johnson’s religiously worded set’s only real dancer is this cooled out ‘Stomp’-style bass-popped 119(intro)-121-120-121bpm pusher, but the gently pattering tensely building 105bpm ‘I See The Light‘ has had some attention too.

PROTON PLUS: ‘Pay Up’ (Image IMA 1).
Taking a while to wind up and then operating in the same disjointed choppy then flowing style as Freeez or Atmosfear (with whom it mixes), this slightly cerebral 0-130-129-128bpm 12in jitterer with remixed instrumental flip never really lets rip.

NOT JAMES PLAYER: ‘Friends Again (Remix)’ (Ultimate 12 – ULT 001).
Can you believe yet a third different mix? Now the ever accelerating 113-119bpm 12in cool instrumental jazz-funk thudder seems shorter, snappier and – the new vital ingredient – with a little bit of flute. Don’t get crushed in the stampede!

BANZAI: ‘Runaway’ (Groove Production GP 105T).
Now on proper as opposed to white label release in a new mix, this 118bpm 12in jazz-funk instrumental has been cleaned up, slowed down and somewhat emasculated – the original had such a ballsy beat that evidently many people found their copies jumped!

CLOUD: ‘The Rio’ (Flashback FLASH 003).
Appallingly recorded string of solos that are OK in themselves held together by skittering hi-hats and distant brass on 130(intro)-128bpm 12in jazz-funk instrumental that sounds like it was made in the bathroom next door. The ‘Party Life’ vocal version being no better.

THE MEMBERS: ‘Everyday Is Just A Holiday’ (Albion 12 ION 1012).
Awfully amateurish 134bpm 12in bounder sounds like a 2-Tone group trying to go disco.

GINO SOCCIO: ‘Closer’ LP (Canadian Celebration CEL 2080).
An immediate sell out in all its forms in New York where Gino is disco’s god, this finely honed set should return him to past glories here too. Sounding very like a sparser and slower ‘Dancer’ with 113-114bpm “rapper” rhythm, and tootling trumpet building an hypnotic groove. ‘Try It Out’ will rival the tightly smacking 119bpm girlie group chanted ‘Hold Tight‘ for UK dancers but the killer is the beautiful slow atmospheric 35-36bpm title track instrumental with lovely jazzy guitar doodling through lush layers of washing synthesizer, while ‘Street Talk‘ is a synthetically pulsating 132bpm girlie group futurist sizzler, ‘(It’s Been) Too Long‘ a rock-slanted 127bpm cool guitar loper sung by himself and ‘Love Is‘ a nice little throwaway 117bpm chugger.

SUZY Q: ‘Get On Up And Do It Again’ (Canadian JC W-12080).
Surreptitiously slinky little 110-111-112bpm 12in bass bumper pares everything down to the basics and then builds a powerful jaunty groove by subtly copying bits from various “rapper” rhythm hits, the most blatant pinch being Young & Co’s ‘I Like’ vocal pattern at times.

PLAYERS ASSOCIATION: ‘Life Is Just A Song’ (LP ‘Let Your Body Go!’ US Vanguard VSD 79441).
Although their well-rounded excellent musicianship is everywhere presently, the vital spark of life sadly isn’t and the already reviewed 12in titles are the set’s best. Otherwise, the rest are probably headed by this racing lightweight harmony sung 128bpm bounder. ‘R&B-Bop-Pop‘ being a mildly jittery purposeful 110-109bpm plodder, ‘The Things You Get Me To Do‘ a snappy bass introed staccato boring 125bpm burbler and ‘Groovin’ on Home’ a sedately rolling slow 64bpm jogger.

HARLOW: ‘Take Off’ (Canadian Quantum RSA 80003).
Originally more repetitive on LP but now remixed for 12in, this zingy 129bpm pounder despite some strong instrumentation and effects is still determinedly gay thanks to its disco chix.

STEPHANIE MILLS, Thelma Houston, Esther Williams, Grace Jones are amongst other strong sets now about and which I have for review, but unfortunately Bank Holiday deadlines have caught up with me, Sorry!

JOHN MAYOH can now be found jocking at Rochdale Tiffanys, where he and his wife regularly kick off Saturday nights with an opening routine, be it comedy (Bucks Fizz – remove skirt, reveal frenchies and suspenders), a blue version of Andy Pandy, or more of a visual spectacle (laser lite stix and robots). They’ve also introduced Rochdale to silly string and custard pie foam, which seem quite popular! Anyway, it’s John’s Under-16s Monday sessions that concern us here, as this (with comments) is the Under-16s chart, revealing only a part of the fun that they get up to.

PAUL MALLON, who lives in Bath but plays futurist Fridays and Saturdays at Halifax Tiffanys, is a concerned young EDM fan. He writes, “I must express my worry about the future of futurist music. The threat comes not from record companies flooding the market with product, good, bad or indifferent, as it’s still up to the punter what he buys, but from futurist DJs battling to be the equivalent of the funk mafia and a first on a rare record. The so-called futurist jocks ought in my-eyes to be entertainers first and foremost, and not spending their time sending charts all over the place filled with records which are only played because either nobody else has got them or they are so weird / uncommercial nobody will get them anyway. Charts full of promos aren’t any use either as they’ll be unavailable to other people and only constitute an ego-trip for the DJ. This is just letting the movement slide into the kind of one-upmanship phase jazz-funk was locked into about two years ago, with only brand new material being played and all the good stuff ignored after it’d been out a month. Let’s be sensible about this music and not get into the situation of buying £11 LPs and £4 singles just to be first. Keep it on a realistic level – get your trips from entertaining your punters and not from hyping the music up. We don’t need charts containing 18 out of 20 records that nobody wants, there is enough good stuff about without just compiling a list of what’s going to be released and calling that a chart.” Hmm. I’ve a pretty shrewd idea of the particular chart you’ve got in mind, Paul – a load of Bollocks, eh? On the other hand, what if those promos and obscurities just happen to be bloody dynamite and packing the floor even if other people can’t buy them? Unlike some other publications, Record Mirror (this page at any rate) has never encouraged ego-trip charts simply by not printing charts of that nature. Nobody will ever know how ultra-hip an individual DJ is from their regular contributions, which go towards making up the overall chart, while those charts that are selected for publication are chosen to illustrate an interesting point as like as not. For instance, this week I consider that veteran Sheffield jock JIM KERSHAW is exhibiting a commendable range of material in this, his chart which follows:

Jim incidentally is an incurable vinyl junkie from way back (just like me!) and says it’s the most expensive – and expansive – habit to feed of them all. Last year he even added an extension to his house to hold his incredible collection of almost 230,000 records and tapes . . . that’s about 100,000 more than me, and everyone always thinks that I’ve got a lot! Anyway, apropos of Ashley Woods recent announcement of a huge sale of lovingly collected soul / jazz / funk gems, Jim adds that he’s never sold, swapped or auctioned any of the tools of his trade. Ashley probably needs the bread, but I agree anyone who sells their records always regrets it in the long run. Finally, news of some newies to add to your collections soon. Brian Eno & David Byrne’s ‘The Jezebel Spirit’ and Landscape’s ‘Norman Bates’ have both been remixed for imminent 12in release.

RECORD SHACK . . . GOSSIP FROM THE SHACK

Editors Note: Continuing their war of words with James, this week they say….

“Well, after the riot caused by last weeks Gossip and may I add, 95% do agree with me, let’s settle down to a bit of Jazz Funk (there’s got to be some on this page!). Times Square and Vogue are the strongest 12”s I’ve heard in ages and the Players Association LP sticks out in front of all those RCA releases. Quick question about the RM charts. If T.S. Monk was No.1 in the National Top 75, would a WEA record then get into the UK Disco chart in this paper?”

One thought on “May 9, 1981: “I feel no shame in considering the current futurist and gay-orientated releases a lot more exciting as disco records than much of the UK jazz-funk product.””

Well, here’s a turn-up for the books: James uses the term “EDM” twice in this week’s column, about 30 years ahead of the pack, and there’s even a release on a specialist EDM label.

I’m pleased to see continuing evidence of James’s renewed open-mindedness. It comes just at the right time, as the styles of music that dominated in 1980 are now feeling somewhat played out; we’re a long way from the “SLOP” days now, thank goodness.

I’m also firmly on his side in the Record Shack war of words – how ironic that Record Shack re-launched itself as a hi-energy label a couple of years later! It all feels a bit like when John Peel (another ex-Shrewsbury schoolboy) started playing punk, and pissed off all his prog listeners.

These recent columns have cast the evolution of dance music in a different light for me. It’s axiomatic these days to claim that I Feel Love “changed everything”, but actually its impact was delayed until the futurist boom, when electronics first started making their presence seriously felt. Some erstwhile jazz-funkers went futurist, some futurists embraced the music that would become hi-energy, some New York b-boys blended synths and rap, and some soul/funk producers started adding click tracks and synth squiggles. And futurism feels far more central to all of this than I had ever realised before.